Arbitration court to announce verdicts in Russian athletes' doping appeals on Thursday

[January 31, 2018]    ZURICH (Reuters) - The verdicts on appeals from 39 Russian athletes who were given lifetime Olympic bans for doping violations at the 2014 Sochi Games will be announced on Thursday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said in a statement on Wednesday.

CAS said that its secretary general Matthieu Reeb would make a statement at 1700 local time (3.00 a.m. ET) in Pyeongchang, South Korea, where the tribunal has set up a temporary office for next month's Winter Olympics. The decisions will also be issued on its website, CAS said.

The athletes were disqualified from their events, banned from participating in future Olympics and in some cases stripped of their medals following the International Olympic Committee’s investigation of widespread doping in Sochi.

Russia has repeatedly denied any state involvement in the doping which was exposed by an independent report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

(Reporting by Brian Homewood; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

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